Business, Economics and Finance

In his new book Offshore: The Dark Side of the Global Economy, reporter Brittain-Catlin delves into the shadowy world of offshore banking. He estimates that one-third of the world's wealth — or $7 trillion — is held in farflung locales such as the Cayman Islands.

Economists Isabel Sawhill and Brian Riedl discuss the federal deficit: how the country reached this point and how it might get back into the black. Sawhill is a senior fellow and vice president and director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution, a non-partisan think tank in Washington, D.C. Brian Riedl is lead budget analyst and the Grover M. Hermann Fellow in Federal Budgetary Affairs at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank also based in Washington.

New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman's new book, The World is Flat, explores the effects of outsourcing and globalization. The book, subtitled "a brief history of the 21st century," connects recent business trends with social issues.

Michael Tanner is director of Health and Welfare Studies at the libertarian think tank the Cato Institute. He launched the Project on Social Security Choice at the institute, which first looked at the possibility of turning the system into a private savings program. He supports Bush's Social Security plan.

Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. A professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University, Paul Krugman opposes Bush's Social Security plan, and has written about it in his columns. He's also the author of Fuzzy Math, on the Bush tax cut.

We speak to labor economist Jared Bernstein, senior economist at the Living Standards Program at the Economic Policy Institute, about how working families are faring in the current U.S. economy. Bernstein co-authored the forthcoming report The State of Working America 2004-05.

Bonanno and his friend Andy Bichlbaum decided to go around the world posing as World Trade Organization representatives giving bogus talks to groups of experts. They fooled many. At their last fake WTO gathering, they rolled the camera, and made The Yes Men a documentary film that has received critical acclaim.

His new book is The World's Banker: A Story of Failed States, Financial Crises, and the Wealth and Poverty of Nations. Mallaby profiles World Bank leader James Wolfensohn, who came to the organization on 1995 determined to transform it.

DeParle is The New York Times' welfare policy reporter. His new book is American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids and a Nation's Drive to End Welfare. DeParle tracks the lives of three families in Milwaukee affected by welfare reform laws.

In his new book, Blood and Oil, Klare argues that the United States and other world powers are jockeying to control diminishing global oil supplies. Klare is director of the Five College Program in Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College in Amherst.